The two murder trails against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim will be heard today in the court of special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh in Panchkula on Saturday.
This is the same court that had sentenced the Dera chief for a rigorous 20 years of imprisonment announcing him guilty in the rape case of two sadhvis of his ashram. Keeping in mind the violence that was created during the last hearing, the convict will not be physically present for the proceedings today.
Currently, Gurmeet Ram Rahim is serving his sentence in the in the district jail in Sunaria near Rohtak and the hearing will be taken forward through video conferencing, the police officials informed. Haryana director general of police B S Sandhu on Friday had said that though no Dera followers are reported in Panchkula, adequate security precautions have been taken ahead of the hearing. He informed that “paramilitary and Haryana Police personnel had been stationed around the court complex in Sector 1 here and other areas in Panchkula town to maintain law and order.”
During the last hearing on Aug 25 when the Dera Chief was convicted guilty, Punjab and Haryana suffered massive revolt from the supporters of Gurmeet Ram Rahim. During the protest, 38 people are reported to be dead and around 264 were injured.
Apart from the rape charges the Dera Chief is also charged with two murder cases against him. One is the murder case of Ram Chander Chhatrapati a journalist who was allegedly murdered for probing the rape allegations against Ram Rahim by the Dera men on the orders of the Chief. The second case Ram Rahim is charged with is the murder of Ranjeet Singh, who happens to be the brother of one of the rape victim Sadhvi.
The special CBI court chaired by Judge Jagdeep Singh will be hearing the trials for both the cases today.